The BBC in the UK has admitted losing a laptop and several memory sticks containing names, addresses and mobile phone numbers of children. Apparently, the information was stolen from a van belonging to a production company undertaking work for the broadcaster’s children’s channel, CBBC.
With instances of data theft, pedophilia and ‘internet grooming’ becoming more prevalent in the media, it is particularly shocking that an organization of the BBC’s standing has allowed such a breach to occur.
While the BBC claims that there is no evidence the data has been misused, there is also no indication that either the laptop or memory sticks were equipped with any security measures, such as data encryption or access control.
US home mortgage lender Countrywide has reportedly suffered insider data loss when an employee copied up to two million confidential records onto a flash drive.
For more than two years, the employee was able to steal up to 20,000 records a time by copying files from the corporate network to a USB flash drive. It is thought that target customers for the data, which included mortgage application rejects, could have included other mortgage suppliers, as well as identity theft fraudsters needing social security numbers to open bank accounts.
The suspect, who had worked as a senior financial analyst at Full Spectrum Lending, Countrywide’s subprime lending division, was arrested by the FBI on Friday, more than two years since his data theft efforts began.
